This is more of a short and sweet several notes and isn't intended to remotely be a full review, but I couldn't find a mention here, and I certainly haven't seen any experienced smoker weigh in on this one. As you may know, Cobblestone Cafe' is a Sutliffe brand, so it's future may be in question, but I doubt this will be in high demand on the secondary market. The pluses are as always, Sutliffe sourced high quality gold and black cavendish; it smokes like a 19th century train; they infused this blend with real Brazilian coffee; and no sugary goop to be found whatsoever.
So the negative? You can't smoke it WITH black coffee, unless you truly do love the bitterness that goes with all coffees roasted enough to be black when brewed. Black coffee, especially the good stuff, does have other flavors, though, like a tasty bitter ale with intense floral notes. But this tobacco blend just tastes bitter. Smoke it slow, smoke it fast, smoke it in any pipe, and it's just bitter. Frankly, some of us, because we like black coffee and ales, like some bitter in moderation, along with other tastes that make bitter a fine flavor in a given context. But not when it's JUST bitter. And when you take the ordinary premium coffee and smoke this with it for breakfast? The intensity of the "bitter" is nigh overwhelming. Imagine your favorite black coffee suddenly being TWICE as bitter. That was my experience.
As always, YMMV, but my advice would be to pair the smoke with a caramel latte' to tone down the "candy" factor of the coffee, not black coffee.
So the negative? You can't smoke it WITH black coffee, unless you truly do love the bitterness that goes with all coffees roasted enough to be black when brewed. Black coffee, especially the good stuff, does have other flavors, though, like a tasty bitter ale with intense floral notes. But this tobacco blend just tastes bitter. Smoke it slow, smoke it fast, smoke it in any pipe, and it's just bitter. Frankly, some of us, because we like black coffee and ales, like some bitter in moderation, along with other tastes that make bitter a fine flavor in a given context. But not when it's JUST bitter. And when you take the ordinary premium coffee and smoke this with it for breakfast? The intensity of the "bitter" is nigh overwhelming. Imagine your favorite black coffee suddenly being TWICE as bitter. That was my experience.
As always, YMMV, but my advice would be to pair the smoke with a caramel latte' to tone down the "candy" factor of the coffee, not black coffee.
